In today’s Washington Post, columnist David Ignatius seems to suggests that somehow Saturday’s attempted bomb plot represents the advent of a “new generation of terrorists.” However, the facts of the Times Square plot actually demonstrate quite the opposite—that al Qaeda’s tactics remain largely identical to previously foiled attacks against the U.S. In many ways, this foiled attack feels like a replay of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a plane landing in Detroit. Let’s look at a few of the similarities:
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius reports from Afghanistan: I asked Lt Gen. David Rodriquez, the No. 2 US commander here, in a briefing tonight how long the deployment of the extra 30,000 would take. He answered that “it will happen between nine and eleven months,” starting in January 2010. Which means that some troops might not arrive until November 2010. The next month after that, December 2010, is when Obama plans to assess how well the troops are doing — so he can decide how many to pull out when …
